General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Not in it to win it" writer finally saying what all of us on DU know. [View all]Johnny2X2X
(19,060 posts)Jesus's teaching weren't all sunshine and rainbows either. Didn't speak out against slavery, said plenty of questionable things about women. Said plenty of terrible things about war, promoted men castrating themselves, child killing etc etc. The New Testament is still subject to people picking and choosing the warm and fuzzy parts while ignoring the vile and evil parts.
The New testament still requires plenty of twisting and turning and pretending to explain away all sorts of horrors that came out of Jesus's mouth. When he said, "I will kill her children with death" he didn't really mean it... How does anyone know that?
So yes, you have to reject much of what Jesus said to be a good person. You have to ignore the parts where he advocated torturing people, but accept the parts where he says be generous to your neighbors.
And I don't see many of his "followers" drinking poison and handling snakes like he explicitly prescribed you to do if you were his "true followers." Whenever it turns to the evil crap Jesus preached, people resort to, "oh, he was just being figurative and speaking in parables with that child killing stuff..." Well, maybe he was speaking figuratively when he you should "take care of your neighbors", who are you to say? And yes, I am aware of the great lengths that Christian historians have gone through to explain away the parts of Jesus's words that don't jibe with modern society, they kind of had a monopoly on writing about history for centuries and centuries so it's no wonder they built it around their little fantasies.